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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
The University of Central Florida will not have to pay $12.4 million to the family of a student who died in 2008 while training with the college’s football team.
Ereck Plancher, a freshman wide receiver for the UCF Knights, collapsed twice and later died during an off-season conditioning session in March 2008. His family sued the UCF Athletics Association and the university for wrongful death the next year, claiming that Mr. Plancher’s coaches ignored indications of extreme fatigue including dizziness, shortness of breath, loss of balance and inability to verbally answer questions.
Although the university itself was dismissed from the lawsuit on the first day of trial, an Orange County Circuit Court judge eventually ruled in the Planchers’ favor and ordered the Athletics Association to pay $10 million in damages, plus an additional $2.4 million in attorneys’ fees and other costs.
In its appeal, filed in Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeals, the Athletics Association claimed that a medical release form Mr. Plancher signed upon joining the team protected it from liability for his death. Separately, the Athletics Association argued that the circuit court’s award of $12.4 million violated a Florida law that limits tort judgments against state agencies — including public universities — to $200,000.
A three-judge panel last week ruled 2-1 to uphold the circuit court’s decision on the underlying liability, but unanimously overturned the court’s awards for damages and attorneys’ fees, capping the Planchers’ total compensation for the wrongful death of their son at $200,000.